The Plant-Based Solution: America's Healthy Heart Doc's Plan to Power Your Health

The Plant-Based Solution is dedicated to thousands of patients who have inspired me by their continual and successful efforts to overcome a medical system focused on mopping up the mess but not turning off the sink that is overflowing. The Plant-Based Solution is about turning off the faucet that leads to preventable chronic diseases. My patients have taught me so much over the years and have given me a reason to show up to my clinic with a bounce in my step and the knowledge that it is going to be another great day of progress and healing.

No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means.

MAIMONIDES (1135–1204)

Contents

Foreword by John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market

Preface

Introduction

1The Six Pillars of Support for the Plant-Based Solution

2The Heart of the Matter

3The Sweet News about Diabetes

4Slim and Trim

5High on Plants for Low Blood Pressure

6Hello Plants, Goodbye Cholesterol

7Grow Plants Not Cancer Cells

8Beans Not Butter for Better Brains

9Grow Plants Not Autoimmune Diseases

10Plant-Powered GI and Kidney Systems

11Fifty Shades of Green with Plants and Sex

12The Garden of Youth

13Plants, the Plight of Animals, and World Religions

14The Earthen Plate and the Environment

15A Twenty-One-Day Menu with Recipes (and Bonus Recipes)

EPILOGUETime to Grow Your Plant-Based Health

Acknowledgments

Notes

Resources

List of Recipes

Index

About the Author

Also by Joel K. Kahn, MD

About Sounds True

Copyright

Praise for The Plant-Based Solution

Foreword by John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market

Dr. Joel Kahn is a man with a mission and a message. His mission, like any good doctor’s, is to save lives. His message? Eat plants, and lots of them. The Plant-Based Solution is a call, by an esteemed cardiologist, to wake up to the best science and research about health, disease, and longevity. On page after page of this highly accessible and authoritative book, Dr. Kahn presents the overwhelming evidence that a whole foods, plant-based diet is unmatched in its capacity to prevent and reverse disease, revitalize our bodies, and extend our lives.

As cofounder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, I have watched from a unique vantage point as the movement toward healthy and organic eating has gathered steam. I have been tremendously encouraged by the millions of people who are taking back their health through the remarkable power of diet. I have seen lives transformed, families saved, and communities reenergized through the power of food-based medicine. Yet America’s healthy eating movement, while growing fast, is still relatively small. We are still losing the larger battle for our nation’s health. We are a population beset with chronic disease, most of which is a direct result of what we put on our plates. More than a hundred million people in this country are diabetic or prediabetic. Heart disease is our number-one killer. Obesity affects 36 percent of adults and 17 percent of children and brings with it a host of ills. These chronic conditions claim millions of lives and cost all of us billions in out-of-control health-care costs.

As Dr. Kahn declares in the following pages, much of this human toll is painfully unnecessary. We already know the solution. The word is out, he writes. Plants heal. Plants save lives. Plants reduce medical costs. Plants prevent disease. Even much-feared chronic diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s, MS, and Parkinson’s, he explains, are deeply connected to what we eat.

This is actually good news. It means that our long-term health is not merely dependent on our genetics. We have the opportunity to transform our health outcomes simply by changing what’s on our plates. We need not wait for dramatic medical breakthroughs, new pharmaceuticals, or ever-better procedures. The power is our hands. But to use that power, we have to educate ourselves. Those of us who live in the developed world have an unprecedented opportunity and responsibility. We don’t have to worry if we are going to be able to eat. Getting enough calories is no longer our primary problem. Indeed, for the first time in history, it is estimated that more people will suffer disability because of too many calories than not enough calories. Never before have we had access to the sheer variety of whole and healthy foods that are available in any grocery store. And yet, never has it been so easy to cheaply consume an endless supply of highly processed, unhealthy food-like substances, as food writer Michael Pollan calls them, that will break down our bodies and shorten our lives. In this era of endless options, we must make conscious choices to eat well. That starts with education.

I’ve met Dr. Kahn, heard him speak to attentive audiences about nutrition and health, read his thoughtful writings on nutrition and heart disease, and had the pleasure of dining at his wonderful GreenSpace Café in Ferndale, Michigan, where he is a gracious host. He is an example of a new kind of physician—part medical doctor, part educator, and part health advocate. He has traversed the conventional medical world and understands that surgery and pharmaceuticals only go so far. What matters far more, especially when it comes to chronic conditions, are the simple choices we make every day of our lives—what we eat and what we don’t.

Unfortunately, the question What shall I eat? often seems to be a subject of great confusion today. That’s not accidental. Significant players in the food industry have a vested interest in keeping the general public in the dark about the best nutritional advice and keeping butter, meat, eggs, sugar, and oil at the center of our diets. It’s to their advantage to make it seem like nutritional science is contradictory and confusing. That is why we must rely on trusted authorities like Dr. Kahn who have done the research and carefully sorted through the best science. He can save you from the misleading voices that tell you it’s all too complex, or it’s all a matter of individual genetics, or that bacon is good for you, or whatever the latest fad diet might claim. He can help save you from the illusion of confusion that has descended over our food culture in recent years. The truth about diet and health is actually quite clear: You just need to know whom to listen to.

The food industry is powerful, but it does change. And the engines of that change are shifting cultural preferences and consumer demand. Whole Foods Market is an example of this. Forty years ago, there wasn’t much of a market for organic foods. Today, organic food is a growing, thriving, multibillion-dollar market, because more and more people have voted with their hard-earned dollars to make it that way. Hopefully, in forty years, we will be able to say the same thing about a dramatic shift to whole-food, plant-based eating. And by reading this book and following its advice, you can be a pioneer of that shift today.

This change in diet will impact much more than individual health. It will also transform our society in numerous ways, as Dr. Kahn lays out. Whole-food, plant-based eating is transformative to a health-care system that is ever more burdened by the cost of chronic disease. It’s incredibly beneficial to an environment that is being damaged by the heavy footprint of animal agriculture. And eating a plant-based diet, as a recent New York Times article pointed out, may be the number-one thing that any single person can do to ameliorate the issue of climate change. Finally, it’s a compassionate choice. I have spent many years working on the ethics of eating animals, and trust me when I tell you that the killing fields of our factory farms are something future generations will look back on with disbelief.

I’m a businessman, and there’s nothing I like more than a deal in which everyone wins. Whole-food, plant-based eating is truly win-win-win-win. Rarely does one simple choice have such a far-reaching impact on our own lives, the well-being of our communities, the suffering of our fellow creatures, and the health of our planet. The Plant-Based Solution is that important. I recommend you read it closely, put it into practice carefully, and enjoy the benefits for a very long lifetime!

Preface

Let me tell you a bit about my upbringing and an important day in my life. I was raised in a home that observed kosher dietary laws of the Jewish faith. The meat we purchased—and yes there was meat—was bought at a special kosher butcher shop. We never combined milk and meat at meals. And there were some foods, like pork and shellfish, that were never in the house, as they are always prohibited.

This experience was a blessing in many respects because it elevated food to something that required mindfulness. I learned to pause before eating to consider if the content of my plate was acceptable to my tradition. Food mindfulness is a key to appreciating the miracle of health, the power we hold to choose wisely or poorly, and in staying the course on a dietary program that is different from the norm. If you have no food rules and can eat anything made anywhere, there are literally tens of thousands of choices to consider, and it can tire you out. By some estimates, there may be over 200 decisions daily on food choices, and it can be a strain. If you grew up eating kosher as I did—or eating only vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds as I do now—the decision fatigue decreases enormously, for eggs, meat hamburgers, dairy ice cream, and BLTs are never a consideration. It is actually easier to choose from a shorter list. Think of a list with five great wines versus 500 choices. Which is easier to utilize on a daily basis when you are rushed and managing your busy life?

At age eighteen I was accepted into a combined premedical/medical program and entered the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with my long-time girlfriend, Karen, who was accepted into the nursing school at the same university. On the first day of classes I walked into the dormitory cafeteria with Karen, and we looked around. Only the salad bar looked appealing, and it also met the kosher rules we wanted to honor, so we became vegetarians. That decision has remained in place for forty years, as well as the decision to stay together—we have been married now for over thirty-six years.

The transition from college vegetarian to vegan happened after we both read the book Diet for a New America, which laid out the reasons a plant-based diet was ideal for health, kindness, and the planet. Around that time, my parents began visiting the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami, where my mother, quite an accomplished cook, learned the nuances of plant-based cooking that was also very low in salt.

My plant-based commitment was sealed when I began my medical practice in Ann Arbor as a staff cardiologist and catheterization-laboratory attending physician. I had gained advanced skills during my cardiology training in balloon angioplasty and so was off and running on July 1, 1990, my first day at a busy practice. Plants powered me. All of that lasted only three weeks because my life changed on July 21, 1990.

I was going through my mail late at night and reading the medical journals that had arrived (this was before digital editions). In a prestigious British journal called The Lancet was a report on patients with advanced heart disease treated with either standard therapy or a program emphasizing a plant-based diet low in fat along with walking, social support, and stress management. You will read more about this study, called the Lifestyle Heart Trial, later. I did not know of the lead author, Dean Ornish, MD, but I recognized many of the other authors as leading academic physicians admired worldwide.

The report, which looked at baseline and follow-up cardiac catheterization, my specialty, claimed that blocked heart arteries became better, or reversed in severity, during a plant-based diet and lifestyle program. This had never been reported before, and I was dumbfounded but excited. I read the report over and over and was impressed by its important and potential impact in my practice. While I did not stop performing advanced catheterization procedures that day, I did start teaching my patients that the lessons from the Lifestyle Heart Trial should be adopted in their own lives to prevent further blockages and procedures. Today, over twenty-five years later, that is my only focus: teaching the early detection, prevention, and reversal of the number-one killer of men and women in the world, heart disease, along with other serious medical challenges like adult diabetes, obesity, hypertension, autoimmune disorders, and even some cancers.

I have benefited by that early introduction to plant-based eating and have acquired a deep appreciation for the impact it has had on my relationship with planet Earth and its animal population in terms of fostering a kind and caring attitude. I have been able to maintain a stable weight, a freedom from prescription medications, legendary energy, and a passion for continued learning and teaching. But enough about me. Let’s get on with the Plant-Based Solution for you and your loved ones.

Introduction

Iwant to say it early and I will repeat it often: There is no decision you can make that is as powerful for your health and as supported by medical research as giving up all animal foods and learning to replace them with enjoyable and healthy plant-based substitutes. That is what I want to convince you of—by taking you through body system by body system and explaining the overwhelming medical data that exists for plant-based nutrition. A plant-based diet, one that is nearly or completely free of all meats, eggs, and dairy, is the answer to preserving or regaining your optimal health. When I use the term plant-based diet, I am referring to a vegan diet, which is based entirely on plant foods without any dairy, eggs, or meats.

My strength is my knowledge of the medical science, and admittedly I am not a chef, nor do I even run the kitchen at my home or my restaurant, GreenSpace Café, in Ferndale, Michigan. After over thirty years as a physician, forty years as a vegan, and serving tens of thousands of meals to the public, I am only writing to help you from my place of authority and experience. My oath to not harm that I took as a medical doctor is the principle you can trust as you read this book.

It can be a tough world out there if we are searching for health messages to trust and follow. Most of us are looking for something to enhance our lives, boost our energy, trim our bodies, make our skin glow, or provide a sense of purpose in a world that can be confusing and occasionally scary. While we may chase the latest fad—whether it is a new skin treatment, a style of exercise, a novel nutritional supplement, or the teachings of a charismatic speaker—we often overlook one of the most profound practices literally at our fingertips to raise our health, our purpose, and our connection to others and the fragile planet on which we live with billions of living creatures. In over three decades practicing medicine in some of the greatest medical centers anywhere, I have been struck by the immense power we have in choosing to make the 65,000 or so meals we decide upon into moments of health and purpose.

The Most Powerful Choice You Can Make

Food is powerful information for our bodies, and when combined with yoga, exercise, sound sleep, stress management, and hydration, it can reverse almost any health problem. At least three times a day, we hold the power of choosing foods to honor our miraculous bodies, to promote our inner and outer health, to honor planet Earth—which is being increasingly impacted by a fast-growing population that will reach 10 billion people within our lifetime—and to honor and respect animals with a kind heart and soul rather than with a cruel and insensitive attitude. Every day can be one focused on health practices for ourselves and our loved ones. Every day we can make conscious decisions to respect the environment and make small but important steps to reduce our damage to the planet. Every meal can be viewed as an act of ahimsa, the Sanskrit term for non-harmfulness and compassion to ourselves and other creatures. This is the very meaning we are often searching for.

Although many different patterns of eating have sustained humans over preceding centuries, we do not live in the era of cavemen, agricultural farming societies and private farms, or lush tropical gardens. Most of us have outsourced our nutrition to big farming enterprises concentrated in the hands of a few megacorporations reporting to shareholders, to giant food manufacturers looking for shelf life and sales far beyond our biochemistry needs and planetary well-being, and to restaurants and food vendors providing us with roughly half of the meals we eat each week.

Do you know how much salt, genetically modified oils, antibiotics, hormones, and toxins might be in a meal you pick up on your way home from work? Probably not. As a restaurant owner dedicated to very high standards, I can pretty much assure you that the answer might shock you and shock your health simultaneously. But the good news is you can control the quality and content of the fuel to power your body to health or harm.

Increase Your Lifespan and Healthspan

The fact that our health is suffering physically and spiritually is without doubt. Obesity has exploded since 1985, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta began tracking and reporting an annual map of the rates of obesity in each state in the United States. Every state has seen a dramatic rise in obesity. Along with obesity follows adult diabetes; cardiovascular disease (hypertension, stroke, and heart disease); dementia; and orthopedic and joint destruction. For the first time, the fear that our lifespan may be suffering from the pressure on our health, which centers around our food chain, has been realized by a documented decrease in the average lifespan of Americans. And what about the term healthspan? The last ten to twenty years of a person’s life is often one of progressive decline entailing the need for medications, medical procedures, and possibly facilities to provide services that can no longer be performed independently. The goal to increase lifespan and healthspan is being threatened, and we may be losing the battle.

So what can be done by every individual in the United States and in other countries? What decision can be made starting today, whether it be a sprint into making life more meaningful and healthful or a slower inch-by-inch approach toward the same goals? The solution is to raise a plant-based lifestyle to the center of both consciousness and dietary choices as a daily, meaningful decision to say yes to health, yes to supporting the health of our planet, and yes to kindness over the torture that characterizes the vast majority of animal-based food products consumed daily.

It is an established medical fact, one not clearly agreed upon until the last decade, that from cradle to grave, eating only plant-based foods free of all animal products (eggs, meats, dairy) can sustain and promote health at all ages. It may be necessary to take a small amount of vitamins like B12 and D to insure proper health and growth, but a trip to a farmers market, garden, or produce department can without question result in healthy babies, healthy children and teens, and healthy adults of all ages. There is no known medical reason why everyone could not thrive on a well-balanced and well-planned plant-based diet.

Furthermore, as you will see, not only is it now agreed upon that all can thrive on whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diets alone—vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds only, the Plant-Based Solution—but the medical database overwhelmingly agrees that we can prevent the chronic diseases that can shorten both our lifespan and healthspan when we choose a plant-based solution daily. Even more startling is that medical conditions present for decades, such as blocked arteries, adult diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cholesterol elevations, can respond in weeks to months when animal-based diets are eliminated and plant-based diets are chosen. This is nothing short of a plant-based miracle. You may want to take part in this miracle in your own life, whether you do it privately, share it with your family, or turn it into the central defining piece of your life’s purpose as many of my friends and I have done.

I will present to you in as simple a manner as possible the reasons why the biggest health challenges we face can be lessened, avoided, or reversed by eating only plant foods. This book includes the most compelling pieces of medical research to demonstrate the scientific support for the miracle of a plant-based solution. In addition to the science, I will ask hot questions, present case studies, share tips